EXHIBITION OF 1862. 
169 
as it came from the hammer, was 24 tons, 10 cwt, 3 qrs. and 
19 lbs.—the largest double-crank shaft ever made. Next to 
this the most notable thing in the way of hammered iron, and 
as showing the progress made in the working of metals, was a 
plate of iron 5 1-2 inches thick, 6 feet wide and 30 feet long. 
France, Belgium, some of the German States, Sweden and 
Bussia likewise made very fine exhibits of minerals, metallic 
ores and metals; those from Russia being peculiarly interest¬ 
ing, because of variety, beauty, and the remote and diverse 
quarters from which they came. From America, there was a 
remarkably fine group of the silver ores and cinnabar of Ne¬ 
vada ; also a fine display, in small specimens, of gold from the 
Wasboe mines, and a handsome cabinet of silver and copper 
ores from Lake Superior. 
In the department of timber, the Colonial Possessions of 
Great Britain excelled all other exhibitors; showing a vast 
number of varieties from every quarter of the habitable globe. 
In the department of chemical substances and products, it 
is, perhaps, difihcult to say which is, to-day, ’doing the most, 
England or France. The finest exhibition, however was Eng¬ 
lish, and a magnificent one it was, particularly in the way of 
dye-stuffs and pigments, of which the exhibition exceeded any 
heretofore made. Many of them are of very recent origin; as, 
for example, the derivatives from coal. The world has been 
familiar with stone coal for many generations, and thinking 
men have marvelled at the inexhaustible stores of it in those 
parts of the earth where it seems to be most needed for the 
production of heat and the generation of steam; but who 
could have dreamed, twenty years ago, that out of that black, 
shapeless mass, which men quarry from the depths of the 
earth and sell for a few shillings a ton, should come, obedient to 
the magic wand of science, all manner of snow-white oils, a 
host of substances that, as yet, defy all rules of classification, 
and, stranger than all, a multitude of such delicate, bril¬ 
liant and altogether incomparable colors as the mauve and 
magenta of to-day ? 
Food substances were shown in by far the largest quantity 
